Denver Catholic

12 FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 9, 2018 | DENVER CATHOLIC Around the Archdiocese C F & C S N C A M A D For more information cfcsDenver.org MT. OLIVET CATHOLIC CEMETERY 12801 W. 44th Avenue Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 424-7785 ST. SIMEON CATHOLIC CEMETERY 22001 E. State Hwy. 30 Aurora, CO 80018 (720) 859-9785 ARCHDIOCESE OF DENVER FUNERAL CENTER Serving the greater Denver area (303) 425-9511 Start planning today: Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery | Family Estates Four deacons ordained closer to priesthood ADAM BRADSHAW Adam Bradshaw was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and lived what he calls a "pretty typical" life. His family moved to Golden, Colo., in 2005, an he worked at the gift shop at Coors brew- ery for six years, up until he entered seminary. His home parish is St. Joseph's in Golden, which is where his faith was planted and fostered. He went through the RCIA program there, which is when he first felt the tug from God toward the priesthood. After being fully received into the Church, he felt on fire for the Lord, and decided to enter the seminary. "I knew God was calling me to something so much deeper than the life I had been living up to that point," he said. As he gets closer to becoming a priest, Bradshaw is most excited to "bring Christ into the lives of all his children and to administer his sacra- ments." St. John the Baptist played a vital role in his discernment of the priesthood, as did Venerable Satoka Kitahara. JULIO CESAR AMEZCUA Julio Cesar Amezcua hails from Madrid, Spain, where he was born and raised into a family of five. When he turned 21, he moved to Denver to study psychology at Metropolitan State Uni- versity of Denver. It was there he met Father Angel Perez-Lopez, who helped him grow in his faith and eventually led him to join a community of the Neocatechumenal Way in 2009. After a discernment period of a few months, Amezcua felt the Lord was calling him to enter Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary. The missionary calling of his eventual priesthood is very appealing to him. "This is what excites me the most," he said. "It means that the Lord can take me anywhere in the world at any moment." Amezcua served in Boston during his mandatory year of mission, and saw firsthand the challenges the Church in Boston is facing: intensifying secularization. "This event opened my eyes to the di¡culties that we can face in Denver if we don't evangelize." WITOLD KACZMARZYK As a child growing up in Poland, Witold Kaczmarzyk was taught by his parents that "Without God, I could do nothing." He grew up in a devout Cath- olic family that cared very much about his education. In 2010, Kaczmarzyk was a student of the faculty of Physics at Warsaw University of Technology, and it was around this time that he began reading the bible to delving deeper into his faith. He would speak with other students about his faith, and it was due to them that his vocation "came to the surface," he said. He received his parents' blessing to drop out of the university and began to study theol- ogy. Kaczmarzyk eventually felt that the Lord was calling him to enter the semi- nary. He began attending a seminary in his home diocese of Kalisz, Poland, and eventually transferred to Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Detroit, which specializes in training Polish seminarians to serve in the U.S. MATEUSZ RATAJCZAK Born in Pila, Poland, in 1989, Mateusz Ratajczak is the eldest of six children. He became attracted the priesthood as early as eight years old, when he began serving as an altar boy. He lost his attraction to this vocation during his teenage years, where he rebelled against his family and his faith. How- ever, at the age of 18, the Lord called him back to the Church through the Neo- catechumenal Way, and he eventually entered Redemptoris Mater Missionary Seminary in Denver. He believes it was through the seminary's patron saint, St. Casmir, that he was sent to Denver. Ratajczak spent three years on mis- sion in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, which he said was a "time of desert" for him, "During which I could expe- rience God's providence daily." As he gets closer to the priesthood, Ratajczak said he wants to "share with others the immense mercy of God I experienced in my life."

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